WTWO Vice President/General Manager Tim Sturgess commented, “We are honored to be recognized by the Indiana Broadcasters Association with these awards.  The Station of the Year award is great recognition for our entire staff who works hard day in and day out.  And nobody works harder than Jesse Walker to keep viewers educated and informed on important weather issues in the Wabash Valley.  Our News Department works tirelessly at presenting the news in a fair and balanced fashion and is definitely deserving of this honor.” 

WTWO NBC 2 also took top honors in two other categories’.  Jesse Walker won the First Place award for best Weathercast and the News Department won First Place for the best locally originated Newscast. News Director, Tom McClanahan received the awards on behalf of the station.

Jason Pensky was a finalist in the Sportscast category as well.  The news program Valley Business Weekly that airs on WTWO’s sister station WAWV ABC was also nominated for an award in the Cross Platform Use of TV category.  WTWO and WAWV are part of the Nexstar Broadcasting family of TV stations. 

www.mywabashvalley.com

So with this kind of outlook on the Holiday shopping season how can you best position yourself to increase your chance of success?  Here are some marketing keys to success for local businesses trying to not only survive but thrive this Holiday season:

1. Make sure your creative message stands out!  Do advertising that really differentiates your business from everyone else.
2. Promote your key discount offers the most.  In a price conscious economy highlighting your most competitive offers will be crucial this season.
3. Plan strategically!  Ask for deals from your vendors, help with advertising dollars or promotional items to lure shoppers in.  Sales and special events have to be bigger and better than every before.
4. Pick 2 to 3 media outlets you can afford to dominate this Holiday season.  Avoid the mistake of spreading your budget out over too many advertising options.  A more focused marketing approach will be more effective this Holiday season.
5. Adopt a charity.  If you business is not supporting a nonprofit charity already, then find one and promote it.  In a flat economy people want to do business with those who are helping others. 

3 things I learned from the attendees.

1. Very interested in learning about what type of corporation they should be
2. Marketing is an area many aren’t comfortable with
3. They are getting more educated before making the choice to start a business

I recently worked closely with one business that made a commitment to increase their marketing in the fourth quarter.  In October revenues were still considerably down from last year. November came in down as well. Then December was double the previous year’s business.  The marketing investment was ramped up gradually with a majority of the money being spent in December.  It was almost like you could feel the momentum building as the marketing increased. 

I was very pleased that ownership had the courage to stick with the plan even after the first 2 months did not go great.  Too often small business owners will get cold feet after just spending a little money on marketing and then they miss the big payoffs.  Word of advice… in 2010 invest in marketing and stick with it.  Now is a great time to take market share from those who are still hanging on and not marketing their business to its fullest.

Sell out crowd takes in rodeo event.

The 80th Vigo County Fair recently took place in Terre Haute, Indiana. This year’s fair drew a record number of attendees. The weather was near perfect for mid July in Indiana and there is no doubt it played a key part in drawing such large numbers to the historic Wabash Valley Fairgrounds. The fair boasted many improvements, new attractions and a variety packed Grandstand lineup.

The fair used a blend of media to help promote the fair dates and events. Outdoor billboards, radio, TV and print advertising were all included. In addition to the normal media mix Social Media was also added. The fairgrounds marketing firm Edge Marketing Inc. established a fan page on Facebook that quickly grew to several hundred fans. Twitter was also added and updates were integrated into the fair home page www.vigofair.com.

Facebook was used to promote sponsorship and commercial exhibitor space about two months prior to the actual start of the fair. A small advertising campaign was purchased on Facebook and both sponsorship sales and commercial exhibitor space sold out at a record pace. It is estimated that about twenty percent of the leads were generated from Facebook efforts.

The Facebook fan page was also used to build excitement for the start of the fair and promotional contests were held to promote interactivity with the fans. One promotion included fans posting past fair pictures for a chance to win Rodeo tickets. The week of the fair Facebook updates were provide to promote each days activities, carnival ride specials and sponsors. Twitter was also used to provide updates about key information and links.

The social media effort integrated well with other forms of traditional media too. Local internet advertising on the newspaper, TV and radio station’s sites linked to the fairs home page were people could sign up for the fan page on Facebook and Twitter updates. Social media can’t get all the credit for the fairs record breaking year but it is safe to say it enhanced traditional media and helped build a foundation of loyal fans online that is sure to grow for next year.

1. The fear of the unknown. Some of these small businesses owners are not a part of any social media site yet so they are unsure about what it even is but they know people are spending time on them. They have spouses, family members and friends that are members and they know some of their customers are embracing it also, but they are unsure about the medium for advertising their business or how it even works.

2. The fear of negativity. Small businesses are afraid they will be talked about negatively and their social media presence will result in complaints and information about bad experiences customers have had with their business.

3. The fear of stagnation. Small businesses usually have limited staff and they have a fear that their social media presence will become stagnate and non-engaging. Most are scared that they won’t have the time to update their information and fully leverage it as a tool to interact with customers and generate more leads.

All three concerns are well founded. I had to educate them on the fact that like it or not social media is here to stay and more of their customers and prospects will be signing up for membership in sites like facebook, myspace, youtube, etc… They are spending more time online shifting their viewing, listening and reading habits away from more traditional media. So the unknown needs to become known, you must get over the fear of negativity and turn those opportunities into positives, and if you don’t have time to keep up with it hire someone else to do it.  www.goedgemarketing.com

I recently had the opportunity to be a part of launching a new radio station format change using social media as the primary tool to convert old listeners and bring new ones to the station.  The scenario I was dealt included very little budget to market the change in the local community.  The Indiana based radio station, B102.7, needed to promote a format change from Hot Adult Contemporary music to a variety format. We turned to www.facebook.com to build momentum for the new station launch. 

The first step was to take the station’s old website and direct it to a fan page on Facebook for the old B102.7.  This page included station photos, discussions about the upcoming change and what everyone hoped the station would convert too musically.  Facebook members were never told what the format would be but they were encouraged to give their opinion and keep checking back for more clues about the change.  To gain more exposure in the local market, a fan page advertisement was created to geo-target everyone on Facebook that was in the station listening area.  Yes you can do that with ads on Facebook.  In less than a week hundreds viewed the site each day and engaged in posting on the site. 

Through Facebook, local business leaders were invited to stop by the studios for a free breakfast.  Email marketing to current and prospective customers was also used to invite business leaders to stop by on the morning of the new station format launch.  That morning over 150 local business owners and media buyers came to the station to see what was going on and enjoy breakfast. 

The friends on the old B 102.7 fan page were then asked to join the new fan page for the new station http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/pages/1027-WBOW/52769402726?sid=20b22984ddbf515fd8e2ee4d0980dd4a&ref=s,  Over 75% converted to the new site and now new fans are joining daily.  This strategy worked very well for generating excitement for listeners and clients. The new station site www.wbowfm.com now promotes the new Facebook fan page prominently on the homepage.  There is no doubt that social media played a major roll in the launch of this new station format change.     

Should a hot tub store be on a social network?

Small businesses need to embrace social networking but where should you be?  The sites I feel that are key include; www.facebook.com, www.linkedin.com, http://www.plaxo.com and any local or niche networks related to a specific industry or market.  You don’t have to be everywhere but you need to be somewhere. 

You also need to be able to manage it.  Social networking has to become part of your sales and marketing plan.   This means you shouldn’t sign up for every free social network online if you can’t keep it updated and maintained frequently enough.  For most small businesses 3 to 4 of the social networking sites is enough. 

If you are into marketing or own a business I have some good news.  More babies were born in the United States in 2007 than in any other year in American history, according to preliminary data reported Wednesday by the National Center for Health Statistics. The 4,317,000 births in 2007 just slightly edged out the figure for 1957, at the height of the baby boom.  Most predicted an eco-baby boom to be smaller than the original baby boom, but the result was a little different.  So what does this mean to marketers and business owners?

The immediate impact of this information is that those that market and sell baby products…get ready to cloth, feed and entertain the 4 million plus babies.  By the way they are turning 2 this year.  For everyone else it is time to think about how to capitalize on this boom. 

In your marketing plan can you change or modify what you are doing to appeal to new moms?  Keep in mind the report showed a slight rise in childbearing by women of all ages, including those in their 30s and 40s, and a record share of births to unmarried women.  Make sure you tailor your message for each age range of new moms. 

As the baby boomers have moved out of the peak spending times of their lives the economy has tanked.  The good news is that the next generation has arrived and it is bigger… so will go the economy.